“WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE?”
Well, what are all these Reunions about?
The Dixie Grammar School Association (like the small acorns from which large Oak
Trees grow) had very modest beginnings in 1984 when a quartet of former students
from the 1940’s decided to try and make contact with some of their peers from their
schooldays during and just post-war.
Thirty, somewhat apprehensive, “middle-aged” ex-schoolgirls and boys drove along
well remembered (and strangely unaltered) byways, to meet, that first afternoon,
in a room above a Pub in Sutton Cheney. It was euphoric - an emotion which endured
to enthuse the organisers to make it an annual event.
Today there are almost 400 paid-up members, usually about half of whom attend the
actual Reunions now held (with the kind permission of the Headmaster) in the School
Hall itself, and for the last ten years or so in conjunction with a ‘Special Champagne
Reception’ for those who had joined the School 50 years previously.
Former pupils attend from all parts of the world - U.S.A.; Canada; New Zealand; France;
the Netherlands and the Isle of Wight(!) as well as all parts of the U.K.
The “buzz” is electric; the chatter and laughter non-stop. (Mr. Gosling would have
been appalled!).
It is very, very special. No-one brags about what they have done or achieved.
On that special day - usually the first Saturday in October - we are transported
back in time - regardless of grey hair; ever present spectacles; and spreading waistlines,
to those days when we were all young and beautiful, full of energy, and with a lifetime
of adventure before us.
The DGSA is the true ‘Friends Reunited’.
By the way - “do you remember when…?”.
